


Before you run, you have to walk

by juurensha



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Batfamily Shenanigans, Don’t copy to another site, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Injury Recovery, Knitting, Reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juurensha/pseuds/juurensha
Summary: In which due to a fall during rooftop tag, Cassandra is temporarily incapacitated and banned from training and patrol until she heals. She’ll have to stave off boredom with the help of her family and girlfriend through the help of podcasts, video games, and D&D.





	Before you run, you have to walk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [milleniumrex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/milleniumrex/gifts).



> milleniumrex bid for a Batfamily fluff piece in the Fandom Trumps Hate 2019 charity auction, so here it is! Hope you guys enjoy it!

In retrospect, she shouldn’t have agreed to play rooftop tag. Training is training after all, and Cass has always taken training very seriously on her own (old habits die hard and also—she just has _so much_ to learn), but—

Well, with most of the rogue gallery being shut up in Arkham (Joker had attempted to laughing gas all of them in some bid to thin out the ranks, resulting in a free for all among the villains that had ultimately led to them all getting carted to Arkham in various states of injury), it was actually pretty quiet around Gotham this month.  

Plus, Steph had done so well during training these days, actually managing to hold Cass in a headlock (she had managed to get out, but Cass was still very impressed), that when Steph had suggested it, eyes shining, Cass had been loath to say no.

(Steph was just _so cute_ when Cass agreed to go along with her ideas.)

And still, they’re all rooftop vigilantes, so rooftop tag should have presented zero issues, but due to a combination of some rotten wood on a railing, Steph’s grappling gun jamming (Cass is _definitely_ dragging Jason in to do his lecture and glowering monitored training on weapon’s maintenance), and Cass leaping down to grab the falling Steph, Cass broke her ankle.

Obviously, she has had worse, but this time, sitting in the manor with cast and crutches, both Bruce and Alfred are telling her that she needs to take it easy for at least a _month._

“Can still fight,” she insists, standing up without her crutches (it hurts, but she knows how to ignore that).

 “I know, but you need to _rest,_ ” Bruce says, “You’ll just make your injuries worse if you don’t take the time to recover properly right now.”

Alfred snorts, “Could you repeat that again, Master Bruce? I must have a recording of this for the next time you try to go crime-fighting with broken ribs.”

“That’s different,” Bruce insists, “I know how to properly handle myself in these situations and keep recovery and crime-fighting in balance—”

“That is, if you will pardon the expression, a load of dung, Master Bruce,” Alfred says with a straight face, gently pushing Cass back down onto the couch, “Miss Cain should never follow your example as a patient.”

“I—well, that is beside the point. Cassandra, you have been taken off the patrol for the schedule for the next month, and that is final,” Bruce says, giving up on fighting Alfred and turning back to Cassandra.

Batman is Gotham’s law, and there’s not much Cassandra can do if Bruce decides to put his foot down besides complain to Steph.

Steph hugs her, “I’m _so_ sorry I got your ankle busted—”

“Not your fault,” Cass automatically insists, patting Steph’s arm, “Wanted to play tag with you.”

Steph bites her lip, “Still—you were trying to save me—”

Cassandra flicks her nose, “Need to maintain weapons better but—busted ankle worth you being safe.”

(Even after all her training, the simple fact is that Steph would have ended up with worse injuries falling through a roof than just a sprained ankle like Cass.)

Steph flushes and gives her a kiss, “I know staying still is going to be hard on you—I’ll try to keep you company as much as I can!”

“Still need to patrol,” Cassandra points out, “Make up for me not being there.”

“I’ll definitely give any League of Assassins goons or Joker an extra punch if I run into them,” Steph promises.

And that’s great, but after two days, Cass really is getting to know what that saying “climbing the walls” means. Selina dropped by with an adorable calico cat, Superman had delivered a deliciously flaky apple pie, and Kate had lent her some boxing DVD’s, but the pie is nearly gone, the cat (named Spade because he’s black and gets along with Ace) likes to sleep during the day, and the DVD’s just make Cass want to box herself, and Cass is _bored._

“Did you already go through all the graphic novels I brought over?” Barbara asks, wheeling herself over with yet another stack.

“Finished The Wicked + The Divine,” Cass says, gesturing at the pile stacked near the couch, “Have more?”

Barbara chuckles, setting down the stack on the side table, “Sadly not of that series. I’m waiting on tenterhooks as much as you, I assure you. But, I do have some other series you can try!” she says cheerfully holding up a gorgeously illustrated graphic novel with the title _Monstress_ and another with the title _Pretty Deadly,_ “They’re both really good, I promise.”

Cass nods as she takes the books and sets them on the couch, “Thanks. But—can’t read all day. Don’t like staying still so long.”

Barbara nods, “Yeah, I did think about that. Do you want to try a podcast maybe? Then you can move around at the same time—although you better amble around gently, Cass, or else I’ll make you write an essay about _Oliver Twist_ for me.”

Cass pulls a face, “I’ll be good. Alfred will make sure.”

“That’s true,” Barbara laughs, taking her phone out and scrolling through it, “Let’s see…true crime podcasts are out, we get enough of that every day. _The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air_ is charming. Dinah likes _Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services_ a lot; it’s very pretty. Oh, you can try some D&D with _Critical Role_ , you might like that. And Dick of course would love it if you got into it.”

Cass does try the podcasts, and it is a little better, since she can walk around and do surreptitious pull-ups (it’s not on her ankle, so it totally doesn’t count as straining herself—even if she makes sure to only do them when she’s sure Alfred isn’t around), and some of them are really good.

And Barbara is right, Dick is over the moon to hear that she’s listening to _Critical Role._

“Do you want to try playing sometime?” he asks eagerly, bouncing in place, “We have a campaign going already, but it’s pretty loose—people come in and out all the time—it’s usually me, Wally, Artemis, Kaldur, Donna, Tim, Kon, and Zatanna—Roy and Cheshire drop in when they can—and Jay even plays once in a blue moon. Barb also runs an all-girl’s campaign too with Helena and Dinah and the rest of them, but she’s a lot better at planning out campaigns than me, so they’re pretty far along in their plotline, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you join.”

D&D does sound really fun—and Dick’s group sounds nice and casual (she loves Barbara, but she can just imagine how intricate a campaign Oracle has set up).

“Can I play a tiefling?” she asks.

Dick beams, “Of course! Zatanna plays one too. What class do you want to be?”

The easiest answer is fighter or monk, but she likes how in D&D it sounds like you can do whatever you want, and Cass has always thought that it would be really cool to be a dragon.

“Black draconic bloodline sorcerer?” she asks hopefully (she’s Black Bat after all).

“Oooo, that sounds _awesome_!” Dick says, getting out copies of character sheets that he had just printed out and helping her fill it out.

She’s still carefully considering what to write down for her character’s backstory and personality (Neeva is the daughter of a demon and a dragon, and she’s been wandering the world looking for a place to call home), when Jason visits and takes one look at the sheet and groans.

“Oh great, did he drag you into it too?” he asks, sitting down on the couch next to Cass.

Cass nods, chewing on her pencil, “You play too,” she points out.

“When I can’t stand him whining at me anymore, yeah,” Jason acknowledges, setting aside a bag.

“What do you play?” she asks, turning to him (maybe she can get some ideas from him).

“Changeling barbarian,” Jason replies easily, “It’s nice to just be able to run in and hit things. What are you playing?”

“Black draconic bloodline tiefling sorcerer,” Cass says, holding up her character sheet.

Jason nods, taking her sheet and looking over it, “Very goth, very cool. Maybe I’ll come by and see you play. Back you up in case you need a tank.”

Cass grins at him (she bets that Jason actually likes playing his barbarian _a lot_ ), “I would like that,” she says, “Please do. Dick would be happy too.”

Jason scowls at her as though he can see what she’s thinking, “I’m only dropping by because I remember how hard it was to try and play for the first time,” he says, placing Cassandra’s character sheet back down while digging through the paper bag, “Anyway, heard you were going fucking stir-crazy, so I brought you something.”

Jason holds out some long pointy looking needles, and Cassandra looks up at him hopefully, “Weapons training?”

Jason laughs, “That’d be fun, but Alfred would then murder me with them. No, I’m going to teach you how to knit.”

Cass frowns at the needles, “Less fun than weapons training.”

“You never know, weapons training doesn’t get you hats and scarves,” Jason says, taking out some black and yellow balls of yarn, “Where do you think Alfred’s Christmas presents come from?”

“Alfred is amazing,” Cass insists, poking at the balls of yarn (they’re really soft), “Not sure I want to sit still that long.”

Jason snorts, “That’s what I said too, but Alfred taught me anyway. Said it was soothing—and it kind of is? Come on, you can’t be worse than the family fuckup right?”

“You’re not,” Cass says firmly, taking the needles from Jason’s hand (it’s worth a shot, she doesn’t have anything else to do and she already owes Jason for giving Steph weapons training).

Jason’s mouth twitches as he ruffles her hair, “Aw, thanks kid. You’re definitely my favorite.”

“Dick will be sad,” Cass points out.

Jason rolls his eyes, “Like hell Dickie-bird is my favorite. Who’s the one who knows when to be quiet? It’s definitely not him. Anyway, so pick out the yarn you want to use, and now we’re going to make a knot to slide the needle into, and then we’re going to start casting…”

Surprisingly, despite Cass’ hesitance at first, Jason and Alfred are right: knitting _is_ pretty soothing (then again, Alfred is usually right).

Steph is delighted and kisses her cheek asking if she can get a sweater as a present.

“Isn’t there like a sweater curse or something?” Tim asks, sorting through the player guides he brought over to lend to Cass.

“That only applies to boyfriends,” Steph replies, sticking out her tongue and wrapping her arms around Cass’ shoulders while propping her chin on the top of Cass’ head.

“Don’t know if I can do a sweater that quickly,” Cass says apologetically, “Will try for a hat?”

“I will wear it with pride,” Steph replies with a grin.

Tim clears his throat, “In the meanwhile—I have notes on Dick’s campaign so far, if you want to look through them. And a player’s handbook in case you want to see the illustrations—they’re really nice.”

Cass sets down the needles to page through the book Tim hands her, and the illustrations are very pretty.

“Also, I’m installing some video games in case you get frustrated from knitting,” Tim says, firing up Cass’ laptop, “There’s Skyrim if you just want to wander around and look at pretty things, and there’s Dragon Age and Mass Effect if you feel like fighting stuff with heart-wrenching plotlines.”

Steph leans over to look at the screen, “Are you sticking her with the first of both trilogies?”

“Obviously the first,” Tim says, scrolling through the games, “I mean—I also loaded Mass Effect Andromeda on here because it’s pretty, but I’m telling you Cass, if you want a good story, go with the original trilogy. …but ask me before you play 2 so I can give you tips on how to get the golden ending in 3.”

Cass stares at Tim (all of that sounds very complicated), “Skyrim doesn’t have fighting?”

“No, it does,” Tim reassures her, “But it’s not very quest based, so you can just wander across the whole world picking up cheese if that’s what you want.”

“Speaking of which, Harley heard you were out and wanted me to give you this,” Steph says, pulling out a basket of lollipops, “I think we should scan them first though, just in case.”

“Yes,” Cass agrees, taking the basket and handing it to Tim, “Please scan.”

Tim raises his eyebrows, “I’m the errand boy now? After I just set up all these cool video games for you?”

“Banned from Bat-Cave,” Cass says mournfully (Bruce had caught her trying to lift weights), “I’ll knit a scarf for you?”

“Sounds good,” Tim says, “Can you knit a hat for Kon too?”

“My hat comes first!” Steph insists.

Cass nods, “Steph’s hat comes first,” she says loyally, “Then your scarf, then Kon’s hat.”

Tim nods, “Make sure it matches my scarf.”

So Cass asks Jason to bring her more yarn, in purple and red (she has enough yellow and black for multiple projects), which he does while ruffling her hair and telling her, “I told you so.”

Cass rolls her eyes at him, “Did Ace return your jacket?”

“I’ll get him to listen to me eventually,” Jason grumbles, “Anyway—staying occupied? Heard Bruce caught you lifting weights. Got to stay still to recover, Cass.”

“You ripped out your stiches when you went running after the Penguin,” Cass says.

“That’s not—he was going to set off a _bomb!_ Besides, who told you that? Artemis?” Jason demands, eyes narrowed.

Cass sticks out her tongue, “Snitches get stiches,” she says, quoting Steph (it was totally Artemis).

“Fine, see if I help you make a bobble for the hat,” Jason says, crossing his arms.

“Alfred can help me,” Cass points out.

“But will Alfred let you throw knitting needles at a target?” Jason asks.

Cass perks up (that’s worth at least a false lead), “…okay. Kate told me.”

“ _Kate?_ How would Kate know?” Jason demands, shaking his head, “It must be Artemis somehow.”

“Maybe. Lessons?” Cass says hopefully.

Jason sighs and takes out a sharpened knitting needle, “Okay fine. _Do not let_ Alfred or Bruce see you messing with these.”

Cass solemnly hides the targets they use in her closet, and it’s pretty fun. She even gets to show Luke the next time he comes over to watch horror Netflix shows with her (it’s become a tradition because Luke wants to see the series, but he also gets nightmares, but he tends not to get nightmares when Cass is around to narrate, because she can just tell him what the actors are actually feeling).

“…that looks like something from that horror movie with the voodoo lady,” Luke says, staring at the target practice sheets Jason had made, featuring the Joker, Black Mask, and Hush.

Cass pouts at him, “No one was even scared in voodoo lady movie,” she points out.

“Yeah, but it still looked super freaky,” Luke complains, sitting down.

Cass sighs and stashes the target practice back into the back of her closet, “Do you still want to watch that haunted house series?”

“Yeah,” Luke says, opening up her laptop, “It’s a pretty cool adaptation, even if you say most of the kids are clearly thinking about food and crushes—oh cool, you started playing Mass Effect?”

Cass nods, looking at the screen where she had paused the game, “Yes. Driving the Mako is fun.”

Luke laughs, “Oh god, have you tried driving it up a mountain yet?”

“Yes. Also managed to get it through a gap in the barricade in the Rescue Liara mission,” Cass says.

Luke whistles, “Props, Black Bat, props.”

“Play Mass Effect or watch haunted house series?” Cass asks.

Luke thinks for a bit before finally saying, “…haunted house series. If I don’t finish it watching with you, I’m never going to get it done.”

“Okay,” Cass agrees, exiting her game in favor of _Hill House_ that somehow despite her best efforts, is still giving Luke nightmares (possibly Cass thinks, it’s because Luke shares a name with one of the siblings on the show.

Personally, Cass still finds it interesting just for how many ghosts she can try to spot in the background, but—it’s hard for her to really get into the plot when she can tell that while the actors are good, they’re not actually scared.

This is why she prefers it when Steph reads her ghost stories, besides the fact that just in general, she prefers it when Steph reads to her.)

Damian has been away for a while, but after getting back from some adventure or another with Jon (she heard they may have gotten transported to some other dimension?), he hurries over after petting Ace and observing Spade.

“I have heard of your amateur mishap,” he informs her, striding in to the library where Cass is putting in the final touches on her character sheet, “Since obviously you need to rest, I thought I might bring some classics to increase your paltry knowledge of such things.”

“Thanks Damian,” she says dryly, taking the flash drive he hands her, “These are?”

“Legend of the Condor Heroes of course,” Damian says, grabbing one of her character sheets and looking at it, “It’s a wuxia classic, and this audiobook version has the best voice acting. Did Richard try to drag you into this as well?”

“Yes. It’s fun,” Cass says, plugging the flash drive in and taking a look (seems like an interesting series, although if it’s anything like the other wuxia stories she’s heard and based on Damian’s own tastes, it’s almost bound to end in tragedy), “You should try too sometime.”

Damian pulls a face, “Richard already is constantly trying to play this game of make-believe, I don’t need you to join him on this endeavor as well.”

“You and Jon already have this whole thing where you pretend he’s your sidekick,” Cass reminds him.

“Kent _is_ my sidekick!” Damian says with a glare.

“Sure, sure,” Cass says amiably, “How was the alternate dimension?”

“Lacking in people with prowess,” Damian sniffs, “You need to get better soon so I can spar with you again. I think I’ve figured out a counter to your moves.”

“You haven’t, but willing to spar,” Cass says, “Once Bruce and Alfred let me.”

“Can’t sneak past Alfred,” Damian agrees, “Let me know what you think about Condor Heroes; no one else here has read it.”

“Barbara,” Cass points out.

“No one who doesn’t have a 20 page dissertation on it,” Damian says, “Raven’s read it too, but again—20 page dissertation. Oh, which reminds me—Starfire wanted me to bring you a giant thing of mustard, so just pretend like I did and you’re happy about it, okay?”

Cass nods, “Why does she like mustard so much?”

Damian shrugs, “Must be a Tamararian thing—she thinks it’s the best thing ever. And Jon wanted to make you a pie, but I said Superman probably already brought you one.”

“He did, but let him bring more,” Cass says, poking Damian’s arm, “Kent family pie is the best.”

Damian scoffs, “ _Alfred’s_ pie is the best, but fine—we’ll let him feel happy, I guess.”

And so, Cass gets more pie that she shares with Stephanie, who is tired from her patrol with Jason.

“God, he’s a taskmaster,” Steph complains, stuffing her face with pie, “All the bat-boys, he’s got to be the roughest.”

“Bruce,” Cass points out.

Steph shudders, “Good point. Patrol with Bruce is always hard. This pie is really good—Jon brought it?”

“Yes, he made it and brought it with Damian,” Steph says.

Steph snorts, “Hard to imagine Damian making pie. And did you hear him talking about sparring with you? Yeah right, like he can beat you.”

“He can’t,” Cass says calmly, “Good, but not too hard to read still.”

“Certainly hope Jon rubs off on him,” Steph says, “He’s such a nice kid—Damian could learn a bit. Also if he could make this pie, that would be awesome.”

“That would be nice,” Cass agrees, slinging an arm around Steph’s shoulder, “Come with me to Dick’s D&D session? Jason said he’d bring some cake.”

“Ooooh, chocolate cake?” Steph asks, snuggling into Cass’ side.

“Yes,” Cass says.

“Tempting, but—still not entirely sure how to play? Besides, don’t we spend enough time running around on adventures fighting people?” Steph points out.

“Not with magic,” Cass says.

“Sometimes with magic if like Zatanna or Raven stops by or some villain like R’as or something decides to make an appearance,” Steph replies.

“But _we_ don’t use magic or fight vampires. Usually,” Cass amends (you never know what weird new villain might pop up out of the multiverse).

“Hmmm, maybe I’ll go with you just to get some cake. And if I have to play—maybe I’ll play a monk? They seem fast and fun,” Steph says.

“Only if you want to,” Cass says with a hug.

Steph laughs, “There’s cake from Jason, which you’re his favorite—you get it all the time, but I don’t. And—if you’re having this much fun just setting up for this game, I kind of want to join in too.”

“Join me,” Cass repeats, tugging at Steph’s arm.

“Okay, but I’ll need your help,” Steph laughs, “Tim tried to get me into all this stuff before, but I didn’t really pay attention to him.”

“I’ll help as much as I can,” Cass promises.

Although Steph doesn’t actually need that much help when they get there. Dick is all too happy to have more people join in, specifically creating a sidequest for all of them to join the main group. Jason has brought cake as promised (only half-heartedly trying to ban both Dick and Tim from eating it), and his changeling barbarian gets along swimmingly with Cass’ tiefling sorcerer in no time. Wally is talking a mile a minute, but thankfully Tim has a tablet with a helpful digital app for the rules and character sheets set up, and Artemis has all the handbooks and guides neatly laid out for them if they want to use those instead. Kaldur’s elven storm sorcerer and Zatanna’s tiefling cleric also welcome Cass’ and Steph’s sorcerer and human monk, and even if Kon’s half-elf blood-hunter is a bit standoffish at first, Tim’s dwarf wizard and Dick’s air genasi rogue convince him to let Cass and Steph’s characters join the group, along with Jason’s Jared just flatly making it a condition of him providing his help to the group once again.

They help the Titans of Justice (Jason mercilessly mocks the group name) trawl through an abandoned tower of a sorcerer and battle a white dragon that has made the tower its roost. It’s a pretty brutal battle until Artemis’ arakocra ranger manages to convince a frost worm to come into the fight, Donna’s elven paladin takes several good holy smites at it, and then Cass’ Neeva and Steph’s Bea get to work in tandem with the worm to finally take down the white dragon.

“Brutal, Dick,” Tim says, shaking his head after the game, “You toss a white dragon at all the newbies?”

Dick laughs, “Hey, you guys also had Jared, and plus, I knew Steph and Cass would be fine.”

“Tell that to my Colran,” Wally says mournfully as Zatanna’s Fate heals Wally’s aasimar fighter, “Cold breath with twelve dice—total TPK move!”

“But thanks to Artemis’ new friend and Bea’s stunning strike and Neeva’s Banishment spell, you guys are fine,” Dick says, unfazed.

“You know, this was pretty fun,” Steph says, helping to put away the dice.

“Told you,” Tim says, stacking up the player’s handbooks, “Could have joined us earlier.”

“No, it’s more fun with Cass,” Steph says, propping her arm on Cass’ shoulder while sticking out her tongue.

“Who wants to play with just you guys?” Jason agrees.

“You’ve already played like ten games with us,” Zatanna points out.

Jason shrugs, “Sometimes you guys do a heist that’s interesting, I guess.”

Dick just grins and throws an arm around Jason’s shoulders, “You love playing with us, little wing, I know. Although you know who would be really fun to convince to play with us?”

Jason shoves Dick’s arm off, “If you say Bruce—”

“Aw, come on, he could use some fun!” Dick whines, “If I could convince Alfred or Selina to talk to him—”

“Alfred would be better,” Cass says.

Jason groans, burying his head in his hands, “Not you too,” he complains.

“Cass is right, and I feel like Alfred would also be easier to convince,” Tim says, grabbing one of the handbooks, “He already does theater; this wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for him.”

“I bet you he’ll play a caster,” Zatanna says, putting her hat on her head, “Probably a wizard.”

“Nope, I bet it’s a paladin; you can hit things _and_ you can cast spells,” Donna says with a grin.

“No, you watch, he’ll play a gentleman thief rogue,” Jason says.

Dick beams at Jason, “Knew you’d come around.”

“If Bruce shows up, I’m out,” Jason warns, pointing a finger at Dick while putting on his jacket.

“Not if Cass drags you here,” Steph says.

Jason shakes his head, “You’re all traitors, and I’m heading out.”

Tim and Cass do raise the question with Alfred, and after looking through the books and hearing that it managed to distract Cass from her boredom and make her sit still through her recovery time, he becomes much more engaged.

“If it will finally allow Master Bruce to not run around the city with broken ribs, I will memorize any number of rules and come up with a multitude of characters,” Alfred promises, paging through the player’s handbook, “I see one can play as a gentleman thief?”

Tim groans, “Great. Now I owe Jason _and_ Kon money.”

“And me,” Cass reminds him.

Tim slaps five dollars into her hand with a sigh, “Well—at least Dick will be happy. He’s been trying to get anyone in the Justice League to play for _ages_.”

“Well, if Master Bruce gets involved, I’m sure Master Kent will hear about it, and then I am sure the entire Tower will set something up,” Alfred says.

Steph laughs later when Cass is telling her about it.

“I can’t wait to see Damian’s _face_ when he finds out,” she cackles, holding her stomach, “Do you think he’ll be more pissed off or shocked?”

“Shocked,” Cass replies.

“You know if he actually tried to play, I’m pretty sure he’d revolt and try to become dungeon master himself,” Steph muses, “Actually surprised Bruce might let Dick run the campaign.”

“Dick was Batman,” Cass points out, “Bruce trusts him with the cowl; definitely trusts him for a game.”

“But you know Damian will run off and probably force all the Teen Titans to play. And Jon.”

“Definitely Jon,” Cass agrees.

“Well, hopefully he’ll be too distracted to critique our patrol technique for now,” Steph says, flopping into Cass’ side, “Speaking of which, on a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you to get the cast off and patrol with me again?”

“100,” Cass says, burying her nose in Steph’s hair.

Steph twists around to grin at Cass, “So am I. Oh, also—don’t worry, I have memorized and gone through all of Jason’s steps of maintaining your gear, so definitely no more accidents!”

“I know,” Cass says, smiling back, “Can’t wait.”

Steph leans forward to kiss her before taking out some bottles of sparkly nail polish from her purse, “Buuut, I think your first patrol in a month should come with some sparkles! So let me paint your nails glitter black while you do mine in purple.”

Cass nods, holding out her hand, “Okay.”

And so they do their nails while Steph has on some ridiculous crime drama in the background so they can mock it while their nails dry.

Patrol is exhilarating after so long being cooped up, and as Cass swings from roof to roof, Steph cheers.

Still, she supposes some good has come from her being stuck still for so long, since Steph shows off her new punches and kicks inspired by their D&D game on some of Two-Face’s new goons.

(She can’t wait until they play again, all together with Bruce.)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it! Please leave comments/kudos!
> 
> Is this kind of a mash up of all comics canon plus TV shows? Look, comics are a giant mash up, so I feel like it's fine for me to pick and choose elements I like from all the adaptations and stick them together. So when I say Artemis, do I mean archer Artemis or Amazon Artemis? When it comes to Jason, I mean Amazon Artemis, and when it comes to the D&D group, I mean the archer Artemis (guys, you need unique names). 
> 
> Love the Wicked + the Divine, still waiting on the next issue! And just like Barbara, I'm going to heavily recommend Monstress and Pretty Deadly, they're so good. The podcasts Barb recs also exist, and of course, I'm a huge Critical Role fan (this fic was not supposed to have as much D&D as it ended up having, but I had fun). I like Mass Effect Andromeda, but you guys have to admit that the original trilogy was better. And you really can drive the Mako through that gap in the save Liara mission. Haunting of Hill House is superspooky and very good, but you should probably not watch it by yourself (so scary). Legend of the Condor Heores is a wuxia classic with so many adaptations (I think they're coming out with yet another one?)
> 
> So D&D character notes: Cass' character being both the daughter of a demon and a dragon relates to her canonical parents (you can decide which one counts as the demon and which is the dragon), and she's a black draconic bloodline because she's Black Bat. I thought a changeling might suit Jason since he goes undercover as a villain so often, and I'm sure he'd find it somewhat relaxing to be a barbarian and just rage. Dick is an air genasi rogue because of his background as a trapeeze artist, I thought Tim would have fun as a dwarf wizard, and you know Donna is having fun as a paladin. What did you guys think of my choices?


End file.
